Obscured Lightning
by Rosy the Cat
Summary: What if the Silver Millenium's fall was not as quick or complete as we are shown in the series?  What if something went wrong with the Senshi's resurrection after D Point?  Multicrossover.
1. Chapter One

**Obscured Lightning**

By Rosy the Cat

Disclaimer: I do not own Phantom of the Opera, Ranma 1/2, Hercules the Legendary Journeys, Xena Warrior Princess, or Sailor Moon. I, furthermore, do not own Master Koga of the Unseen Light. He belongs to Animeaddiction, a.k.a. Hung Nguyen, who is a really-really-really good writer, and I bow to his superior skills. Go read his stuff after you finish reading mine; I COMMAND YOU!

Chapter One

Silver Millennium, the Final Battle, the Moon

Thundara had longed for a true battle with which to test her skills since attaining her mastery as a War Mage, a step that few of her fellow Senshi ever bothered to take. But, though she was counted as one of the four Inners, and thus part of the Moon Princess' Honor Guard, she held to the traditions of her mother, and grandmother, and all of those who had come before her, back to the beginning with the Ten, founders of the planetary dynasties. She had been trained as befitting an Outer, lone bastions against encroaching darkness from without Sol and that star's planets. Only Sky, Sea, Time and Death had joined that path among the princesses, and a new Death or Time was rare, but both? It had not occurred in millennia, and many had claimed it as a sign of great change, or great doom.

Yet, in this moment, she would give almost anything to have peace back; the annoying society circles of balls, feasts and parades for, annoying as they were, they were far better than watching hundreds of Dark Monsters fall to her blade, magic, and fists, only to be replaced by more.

Her head snapped up, pointing unerringly towards the Moon Palace and the thickest part of the battle, over which hung in midair the traitorous Lady Beryl of Earth, cackling her transformed snakeish head off as-Dear Gaia-Princess Serenity lifted Love's sword, the Captain of the Guard's sword, struggling to position it for an unkind cut into her own belly, tears coursing down her face as she cried over the Earth Prince's still-warm corpse.

"NO!" Thundara screamed, hacking and punching and blasting at any Monsters who got in her way. Sweet goddess, where in the name of all that is good and holy are the other Inners? The palace guards? The queen? Had they so quickly forgotten their sacred vows to protect their sweet, dear princess?

Her heart lurched within her chest as she saw their bodies, which had been obscured by the hoards from her place on the field of battle. Was she to be the last?

"Serenity! Goddess, Sere, don't!"

Too late; the blade had been balanced, the belly pierced. Her friend collapsed to her knees, and then fell on her face in a way that was not amusing, and would never be. She reached the Moon Princess' side just in time to swing her sword in a wild arc to keep Beryl away. The traitor hissed, eyes narrow and dark aura building. Metalia was coming to play. Thundara merely narrowed her own eyes and growled in reply, lightning playing along the flat of her blade.

Before either could make any further moves, a familiar voice called out a spell and, with a flash of silver light, all of the bodies were sealed within bubbles of power, dark ones for the Monsters and Beryl. Thundara spun, her eyes widening upon seeing a beloved figure.

"Queen Serenity!"

She ran to the silver-haired monarch, tripping over the last palace step as her strength finally failed her, her adrenaline high having burned away, the only words capable of passing her lips being "My lady, I..."

The Lunar queen raised a hand for silence, one hand clutched to a side and pain etched into that ageless face. Counselors Luna and Artemis scampered up as well, having survived by shifting to their animal forms to make smaller targets. Luna, scenting weakness that had little to do with battle wounds, collapsed on her furry little butt and looked up at her ruler with tears in her red eyes even as she started babbling that all would be well, and that they would find a healer to make it all right.

"Silence," came the soft yet steel-strong voice of Serenity. She looked into each of their eyes, and said, "I will send those who have fought and died this day, the Senshi and the Courts and the People, into the future, resting in wait. I will seal away Metalia and her foul minions away deep; should the seal be broken, the Senshi and the People will awaken and fight, and destroy the darkness, as I have not the strength to do now." She looked kindly to the Moon Cats. "Would you join them? Guide and counsel them as you have done me?"

The two nodded, tears streaming down Luna's night-dark furry cheeks even as the magic summoned stasis cylinders and placed them within. Before Serenity could say anything, Thundara said, "Please, my lady; surely there are some survivors, on Earth at least? I would ask that you let me remain a while, so that any Monsters missed might be destroyed, and any knowledge of our people hidden and preserved, kept for those who will awaken and from those who would use it for ill. I could not do less. I failed Sere...I was not at her side when she fell..."

Serenity pressed one hand to the Senshi's shoulder, looking hard into her eyes.

"Do not discount yourself so quickly, nor claim that which you know to be false. My daughter and heir would be pleased to know that you survived, and would in fact be upset if she thought so unkindly of her opinion. You would join your sisters in arms at rest upon the end of this life?"

The Lightning Princess nodded decisively, clutching her sword to her breast with one hand as she covered the queen's hand with her other one.

"So it shall be," Serenity said, lifting up the Crescent Moon Wand and casting one last spell, her body disappearing as the magic absorbed all of the energy within her physical form, memories spilling into the Silver Millennium Crystal before the faceted stone split into seven, each gaining a different color of the spectrum and shooting off towards Earth, the shield bubbles transforming into orbs of light and following after the crystals.

Thundara staggered to her feet, taking a shuddering breath even as she noted signs of the ages-old life-support spells starting to fade, the atmosphere thinning already. In an exhausted stupor she managed to make her way to a teleport pad, not trusting her own powers in her current condition to make her way safely down to the planet surface. Locking in the coordinates for the peninsula closest to the Mother City, Atlantis, she took one last look at the dying remnants of the greatest human civilization, noticing a glamour already starting to cover the ruins like a tidal wave of desolation.

She would not forget it as long as she lived.

Kino Makoto's apartment, Juuban District, Tokyo, Japan, Earth

After the Vanquishing of Beryl and Metalia at Point D

Makoto snapped bolt-upright in bed, gasping into the darkness surrounding her.

This was promptly followed by an agonized moan of pain as she flopped back onto her futon. She felt like she'd been stampeded by a herd of rampaging wildebeests that were being chased by a mama T-Rex and her two almost-grown spawn. Gah. It hurt so bad she could not bring herself to start cursing in any of the three languages she knew. She hadn't even been able to get past "Meh!" for a good old "merde" that would have gotten her mouth washed out with soap by her beloved mama, if the ever-so-ladylike French woman were not dead and two years cold in the ground alongside Papa-san. For that matter, Grandma O'Brian-Kino would have done the same, if she didn't live in a nursing home on the other side of the district.

See, now she must be delirious! Lord, make the bad pain go away; she promised to go to church every Sunday, except when there was a youma attack, of course, because naturally God would want her to save innocents and the like.

Blar...

All right, what had happened? The last thing she remembered was the youma coming at her with a blade to deliver the killing blow, and a sharp pain over her eyes, and then feeling oddly insubstantial as she fed her power to Princess Serenity so she could Moon Magic that snaky skanky Queen of Darkness Beryl into dusty goodness.

Obviously death wasn't nearly as permanent for her as it had been for her parents. Let's hear it for that Senshi Get Up and Get 'Em attitude!

Speaking of Senshi, she probably should call the girls and check to see if they were all right. Reaching into her sub-space pocket, Makoto hit the correct button to call Moon from memory and by feel, waiting for the little screen to light up on the calculator-shaped communicator and dreading the feel of light hitting her still-hurting eyes.

Wait a minute; that was the "On" noise, but there wasn't any light. Weird. Maybe the visual wasn't working? Hoping that the built-in mic was working, she said, "Hey, Usagi-chan, it's Makoto; pick up, okay? The monitor on my communicator isn't working."

Wait. Listen. Early morning noises coming through from the other end, so it was definitely working.

"Usagi-chan, what's going on? Why aren't you answering?" Makoto was confused, but shrugged it off as her princess being either asleep or in the bathroom, and thus unable to hear. She repeated the process with each of the other Inners, growing more and more concerned with each try, completely terrified when she tried Mars last. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Rei always answered!

Her fear leaped even higher when she made her way to the bedroom door, flipping the light switches for both the room and the kitchen/living room to on. Nothing. No light. Groping her way across the room, she made it to the refrigerator, sighing with relief at the familiar hum that said it was working, along with the calming cool.

"Relax, Makoto," the martial artist Senshi of Jupiter murmured to herself. "The light bulbs just burned out...In every room and appliance in the apartment. Kami-sama, what's happened to me!"

Scrambling franticly around the room for the phone, accidentally slamming herself into the tile-covered countertop several times before locating the cordless, Makoto clutched the edge with a white-knuckled hand as she sank to the cool linoleum floor, her other hand shaking violently as it dialed what was hopefully the correct number by touch. As her bottom hit the floor, she noted an odd stiffness to her clothes that had not caught her attention before now, as well as the faint scent of dried blood. Whatever had happened at Point D, she obviously had not recovered completely, or much at all, really.

At the other end of the phone line, someone picked up.

"Japanese Emergency Hotline (), how may we help you?"

Nervously swallowing back bile that had started to threaten to rise in her throat, Makoto took a careful, calming breath that did not quite work, and said, "My name is Kino Makoto, and I think I've gone blind."

(): I have no idea what Japan's equivalent of 911 is, so I just made this up as spur of the moment. If anyone knows what it really is, please e-mail me so I can correct it. Thanks.

Author's Note: I'd like to thank Andrew Lloyd Webber, Joel Schumacher, and Sony Music for the kick-ass musical movie and soundtrack for The Phantom of the Opera. It gives me the shivers just to listen to the music. Go team you! If not for all of you people, I'd have never gotten this monster of an idea in my head, where it's been building up steam for almost a week. Okay, more than a week. And this first chapter was done in, like, (eek!) 2.5 to 3 hours. And I've got more, dangit! Boy howdy, do I have more. Just wait for it, and we'll eventually get to Phantom-y goodness.

God, just let my muse keep going until the end of this story, with breaks for homework and papers...

Thanks also go to my ever-so-lovely sensei, Rhonda, whose comment on feeling sorry for the Phantom fanned my interest in PotO from a curious spark to a consuming flame. Bless you, Rhonda, and your crazy teddy bears too!

And for you readers, please e-mail or hit review or whatever and let me know what you think. I'd really appreciate it.

- Rosy the Cat 


	2. Chapter Two

Obscured Lightning

By Rosy the Cat

Summary: A multi-crossover fan fiction, this story's main focus will be on Sailor Jupiter of Sailor Moon fame, and will gain elements and characters from Phantom of the Opera, Ranma 1/2, Hercules, and Xena. What if the Silver Millenium's fall was not as quick or complete as we are shown in the series? What if something went wrong with the Senshi's resurrection after D Point? 

Disclaimer: I do not own Phantom of the Opera, Ranma 1/2, Hercules the Legendary Journeys, Xena Warrior Princess, or Sailor Moon. I, furthermore, do not own Master Koga of the Unseen Light. He belongs to Animeaddiction, a.k.a. Hung Nguyen, who is a really-really-really good writer, and I bow to his superior skills. Go read his stuff after you finish reading mine; I COMMAND YOU! 

Chapter Two

A year after the fall of Atlantian civilization, Athens

The weighty iron-bound wooden door to the villa's outer courtyard slammed shut with a resounding crash, causing the inhabitants to look up in confusion that was quickly cleared and replaced with barely-concealed mirth. War Mage Thundara, known by the locals as Andrea, had returned from the local market in a raging fit of temper.

It was getting to the point where it would be unusual if she didn't.

"Someone please tell me that I've merely wandered back from an alternate universe, and there is no way any human could be so chauvinistic as those men outside!"

Carnelian, a native Terran Atlantian and of common birth, though a lady by merit of her own virtues and skills on the field of battle, gave her friend a wan smile. The abrupt change from living in a largely matriarchal society where the talents and skills of both genders were viewed as equally valuable and important, and government was more open, to a feudal mish-mash of city-  
states led by warlords and kings and everything was of a distinct masculine-  
favored bent, had been hard on all of those who had survived the Fall. 

"Sorry 'Dara, no luck there. And the fact that you're obviously not a local probably just makes them weirder." 

An exasperated sigh blown upward into her bangsextra-curly due to humidity-  
Thundara slumped back against the nearest stone wall and slid down until her butt hit the dirt floor of the courtyard. 

"That's it; I'm moving to Sparta!" 

Little Leeta, Prince Endymion's fourth cousin on his father's side and, at the tender age of nine, the youngest of their group, looked up from the map and mixed dried herbs in front of her. She was using the tools to divine the location of a pack of demonic hellhounds that had been terrorizing the local farmers, and some of the group was planning on going out to vanquish them tonight, if they could pin down whatever cave or abandoned house had been taken for a lair. She had survived the Fall by virtue that her parents had not permitted her to go to the grand ball on the Moon with them, and had instead left her with servants. That, and she knew her family's ancestral home better than the Dark Monsters, and had secreted herself away in a hidden passage earlier that night in order to avoid having to take a bath. She never left the sanctuary of the villa unless accompanied by at least one of the older mages for two reasons: One, she was shy, and two, her leaf-green hair had gotten her mistaken for a nymph or dryad far too many times in the months before the group had managed to find each other, and glamour spells were her major weak point magic-wise. 

"What's so great about Sparta? Their army keeps attacking the city!"

Zathir, one of their five trained healers and one of the few men of the group, commented without looking up from the scroll he had acquired from some wandering priest a few weeks before, and was still trying to translate; or perhaps decipher would be a better word, because he could not for the life of him figure out what sort of knowledge regarding the spiritual alignment of an army camp could be gained by disemboweling a goat and examining its liver. He reached up and scratched idly at his longish hair which, given the lack of outsiders, was its normal icy blue. His confused frown turned to a look of horror-filled disgust. He had lice. Again. Damnit! 

"Sparta and the other neighboring city-states keep attacking Athens because, as near as I can tell, the Athenians spent money that was meant to fund defensive wars against the Persians to rebuild the temple complexes on their acropolis. As for what is different about Sparta, while they produce less art and are more martial in their attitudes, at least they don't marry off and/or closet their women away as soon as they become capable of bearing children. I think they have a law forbidding women to marry until they are eighteen." 

Leeta blinked a couple times, joined by several of the others within hearing range, and said, "Okay, that makes sense. But why didn't we settle there in the first place?" 

"Because certain people were lazy butts and said that they weren't going to sleep on the ground one more night, and pitched a hissy-fit until the group agreed to settle in the nearest city, namely here, just to shut them up," Thundara pointed out from her position by the wall, eyes half-closed with exhaustion but focused firmly upon Migtan, also known as "Lord Prissy Little Whiner Who Is Only Good For His Berzerker Battle Rage And Cooking Really Good Meat." 

But not hunting, or even butchering, because he had issues with potentially getting blood or other bodily fluids associated with death from "filthy beasts" upon his perfectly-groomed person. By all accounts, His Lordship would have died of starvation long before finding the group if Carnelian hadn't found him and taken pity. Not that he had ever thanked her, or even asked. He'd just pranced up to her fire, snatched some rabbit that had been cooking on a skewer, and proceeded to alternate between stuffing his face and degrading his hostess' cooking skills and parentage. 

He'd been in charge of meat preparation for whatever group he was with ever since. 

Migtan looked up at the sole remaining Senshinot counting the Guardian of Time, of courseand said, "What?" before returning to the arduous task of filing a nick out of his fingernail. 

Any further argument was forestalled when Leeta let out a triumphant squeak as her spell finally got a lock on the hellhounds' lair, herbs glowing a faint gold/green/blue as they swirled around until forming a spiral and settling upon the detailed topography map, centered on a distinct set of hills approximately ten miles away from the city, and smack in the middle of prime local farmland. The hills themselves hadn't been developed with anything bigger than a small lookout for soldiers on patrol to stay while waiting for the next patrol to come with news and send them on to the next guard station. If the hellhounds were careful to be quiet, the soldiers would have never noticed their presence nearby, or they could have killed the soldiers and planned to leave as soon as the city authorities realized that several patrols worth of men were missing. Now that the Atlantian Remnants, as they referred to themselves, knew where to look, the monsters would be dispatched, the farmers would be grateful, and they'd have enough money and other supplies to stockpile sufficiently for winter which, while mild, still had them dealing with ocean-derived storms. 

Things were looking up. 

Juuban Hospital, ER

Things definitely weren't looking up for Kino Makoto. 

She'd told the paramedics and police that had showed up at her apartment that she could not remember how she had ended up like she had, and that was partially true. She still had absolutely no idea how she'd gone from Point D and in her Senshi fuku to dressed in her school uniform in her bed, in her home, with dried, half-dried, and fresh blood all over her body and clothes, her wounds largely scabbed over in an uncertain fresh sort of way. She was quite aware how, where and when she had acquired the wounds, but she wouldn't be saying anything regarding that in the near future, unless it was to the Senshi or the Guardian cats. 

Speaking of which, why in the world hadn't they answered her communicator calls? Surely she couldn't be the only Senshi to have survived! Usagi at least would have made it; she was the most powerful of them all. The petite Moon Princess had obviously given Beryl and the Negaforce the smackdown to end all smackdowns, otherwise the world wouldn't be here, would it? 

She flinched slightly as the door to her temporary room was pushed open, the busy noises of the rest of the hospital flooding into her hypersensitive ears, which she suspected were, along with her other remaining senses, already adapting to her lack of sight, just like her Grandpa Kino's had reportedly done when he had lost his vision. The old man and his doctor both claimed it was simply due to old age, but Grandma O'Brian-Kino insisted that it was due to his "fool head bein' punched, kicked, and slammed against things almost as hard as it was in the name of getting stronger, the git!" Of course, all of this was said with a look of bemused affection that belied the strength of the words. These days Grandma and Grandpa lived in a nursing home with Gran's overweight cat Jenny Greenteeth (the cat had an odd fascination for spinach and seaweed) and Grandpa's seeing eye dog, Kaminari, as both of them were getting on in age. 

"Lord preserve us!" 

Ah. That would mean Grandma was here. While the hospital's nurses and doctors had done a good job cleaning Makoto's wounds while chattering about possible surgery on her eyes that had raised hope in her heart until it was discovered her rare blood typewhich she felt was probably due to her being a Sailor Senshimade that option unfeasible and talk was downgraded to tentative hope of cosmetic surgery to hide or lessen the scars, the rest of her still felt not quite clean, and the cuts and bruises ached so horribly. 

"...Konichiwa, 'Ba-chan," Makoto mumbled into the soft shoulder that had found its way in front of her face, her grandmother obviously having crossed the space between them and pulled her into a hug. The blind girl winced slightly as the firm hug pressed a bit too hard on the soreness that seemed to compose almost her entire body. 

"Sorry, luv," Sarah Kino said, pulling away abruptly from Makoto while maintaining a gentle grip on the girl's upper arms. "How are ye feelin', then? These terrors that call themselves doctors treatin' ye well?" 

Makoto's lips twitched slightly into a smile; her paternal grandmother's disdain for modern science was nigh-legendary in their family. "I feel like I've been hit by a shrapnel blast and then had a Mecha do a spazzy excuse of a jig on top of me to the tune of 'Bad Blood' from the Slayers TRY CD, but otherwise.  
Daijobu desu." 

"Ah." There was a long silence, then, "I daen't suppose you're ready to give me the real story behind all of this?" 

Makoto reflexively jerked her head up and in the direction of Sarah's voice in shock. 

"Daen't take me for a fool, lass. I've known ye far too long to buy that load of malarky ye fed to the police. Something big has happened and the world is different while pretending for all it's worth that it isn't." 

Makoto swallowed hard, then said shakily, "I'll tell you, Gran, but not here. There's more than just me at stake, and I won't endanger anybody else." 

Before anything else could be said, a doctor came in and quickly informed them both that she wouldn't be able to be released into her grandparents' care for another week. 

As Sarah was leaving, Makoto stopped her by saying, "Ba-chan, could you call my school and tell them I won't be there for a while?" 

Sarah, a distinctly puzzled tone to her voice, replied with, "Of course ye're not, luv, ye'll have to learn Braille and the like; and besides, who would I call, the School District Superintendent? Ye just got expelled for fighting at your last school, and we'd moved ye into a new district; did ye hit your head and forget already?" 

Shaken, Makoto weakly replied, "Yes, that must be it. Gomen nasai, Ba-chan."

As soon as her hospital room door clicked closed, Makoto rolled onto her side and curled into a fetal position, ignoring the annoying tug of the IV line on her arm. 

How could it be that everybody but her had forgotten that the past ten months never happened! 

Ooh, what's going on! What's gonna happen next! You're gonna have to stick with me on this one to find out; yay! 

On an interesting note, I got this name definition on the 'net- ANDREA: masculine. It works for Thundara, especially when you compare her/Makoto with how the average Greek woman would have acted. I got this at http: go out to my reviewers: 

Lita of Jupiter- Sorry about the scene change confusion; I'm fixing the summary, so hopefully others won't have the same problem. As for the blindness, well... she's keeping it. For how long though, well... evil cackle!

Cris- Thanks! 

demonyo-anghel- evil grin

Xoni Newcomer- Thanks! And oh, how the plot will twist... Heh. 

angela oaks- Thanks, and Mako-chan's one of my favorites too, right up there with Usagi and Hotaru. 


	3. Chapter Three

Obscured Lightning 

By Rosy the Cat

Disclaimer: I do not own Phantom of the Opera, Ranma 1/2, Hercules the Legendary Journeys, Xena Warrior Princess, or Sailor Moon. I, furthermore, do not own Master Koga of the Unseen Light. He belongs to Animeaddiction, a.k.a. Hung Nguyen, who is a really-really-really good writer, and I bow to his superior skills. Go read his stuff after you finish reading mine; I COMMAND YOU!

Chapter Three

A year after the fall of Atlantian civilization, Athens

Thundara had decided to stay home from the hunt that night and take over the scheduled watch. It wouldn't be the first time if some idiot thief decided that a large house with many occupants meant great wealth, and they had managed to save some relics and heirlooms in their relocation that they would prefer not to be parted from.

Speaking of thieves...

Thundara's bare feet propelled her silently through the moonlight-pierced shadows to the room she shared with Carnelian, eyes narrowing as she took in the nearly-silent green and blue-clad figure who was hopping up and down with one foot in his hand in the middle of the room. Idiot probably stubbed his toe on Carnelian's blackwood weapons chest.

"Ahem."

The thief turned to face the door just fast enough for his eyes to widen comically as she darted in and slammed him against the far wall, fingers hooked into his tunic as she lifted him off his feet.

"Err...Hiya Andrea. How's things?"

"'Things' will be worse for you if you don't give me a valid excuse for your presence within my home, Autolocus. By the way, nice bracelet."

The smarmy wonder had the audacity to say, "Would you believe I got lost on my way to the Magistrate's? And that the bracelet was a gift from a very grateful princess whose life I saved?"

Her eyes narrowed even further as she whispered menacingly, "I might be more inclined to believe you before that incident in Thebes, Autolocus, and if it weren't for the fact that that bracelet is one of the few items that remains from my dead grandmother's legacy to me."

"...Oops?"

Thundara took a step back, keeping the so-called "King of Thieves" pinned to the wall through sheer force of power, and with a flick of a hand summoned anything that did not belong to him. A truly boggling amount of baubles, brickabrack, and artifacts zipped obediently out of his clothing to hover before her. Even after separating out everything that was either clearly of Atlantian make or she knew to belong to her housemates, a truly staggering amount of the items radiated magic of one sort or another.

"Been to Kali Khat I see, Autolocus."

"Hey, I never said-"

"You didn't have to; this one amulet practically screams death magic, and I've seen some pieces of Hindu work before. What were you thinking, taking something from a temple dedicated to a dark earth goddess of destruction whose worshipers are mostly assassins? You're lucky some high priest or another didn't use it to curse you at a distance!" With a further flick of magic she sent the amulet into a small carved--and heavily warded--jewelry box near her bed. Even as the box snapped shut and the warding activated, Thudara made the mental note to find some reliable adventurer to return the amulet to its owners. Wait, scratch that, she'd find a reliable map and take it herself. The average adventurer had the survival instincts of a brain-dead chipmunk, and would probably try to use the amulet in some half-assed attempt to ward off evil, if they didn't hock it for food, alcohol, or loose women.

"Now who is stealing?"

"At least I can be trusted to return that to its rightful owner without it being used in some demon summoning or a warlord's ignorant attempt at world domination, Auto. Now, what really sent you to my home and rifling through my things?"

After listening to his explanation, she blinked a few times and summed the entire thing up with a distinct tone of incredulity.

"Let me get this straight: you overheard some random comment, in a bar of all places, about some monsters that had slaughtered half a tribe of Amazons, and decided to grab some random 'magic-looking doohicky' on the off chance it would have the ability to defeat the monsters and thus gain the gratitude--and possible riches--of the surviving members of aforementioned Amazon tribe. Is that it?"

"Yep, that pretty much sums it up."

Thundara finally let her head fall into a cupped palm with a groan.

"Figures."

Kino Family Ancestral Home, Okayama, Japan

Kino Kuma sighed as he settled upon the worn stone bench that sat just inside the house complex's courtyard, near the main gate. His keen ears noted the sounds of faithful Kaminari, his guide dog, sitting alertly at his feet even as the beast leaned in for a scratch behind the ears.

How had things come to this?

He'd once been the third of five sons, back when the house and all of the outbuildings echoed with sounds all day, every day--parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...so many now gone. Of the five, only he had survived the War. Then, his wife had given him two sons; two sons before disease had taken all hope for more. Both sons had waited quite a while before marrying, too, and the eldest had left the Home to make his own: first abroad, where the boy met and married, and then in the bustling capital of Tokyo. Only his second son lived in the Home, he and his wife having left to avoid stepping on toes, and to keep near their eldest granddaughter.

Blind as he was, Kuma knew that little Makoto made her aunt and uncle nervous. After all, of all of his descendants, only she had followed in his Art--at least seriously. Furthermore, as the only child of the eldest son, the house rightfully belonged to her once she came of age. She would one day be the head of the Kino family, unless her aunt and uncle produced a son, which wasn't looking too likely as those two got older. And now with this new development...

Kuma mentally banished his thoughts of family politics. He knew his granddaughter, that she had no interest in such things. What was important was that he keep her from dwelling on what she had lost with her eyesight, and point her toward something lighter, and full of hope.

Kuma smirked ever so slightly and called out, "I heard your foot scuff in the dirt fifteen minutes ago, boy. You're losing your touch."

A warm chuckle spread itself over the courtyard as he heard his visitor move more openly toward him.

"I will have you know, Master Kino, that I only did so to keep a lizard from startling your dog into running off in a chase."

Unseeing eyes glared impotently in the direction of the younger man's voice, accompanied by a mock-scowl, before dissolving into joy.

"I am glad that you could make such good time, young Koga."

"I could hardly refuse a request from you, my friend; you so rarely make them. Now, tell me: what makes you think that this grandchild of yours is so well-  
suited to the Unseen Light?"

Kino Makoto snarled to herself as she bumped into a wall for the umpteenth time in the past hour. All she wanted to do was to practice some kata in the middle of one of the many empty rooms the house held, but her sense of direction wasn't helping. Ever since Ba-chan left her in here to her own devices, she kept getting turned around. If she wasn't accidentally sidestepping into a shoji screen, she was stumbling away from a support post that she unintentionally punched, the offending fist cradled protectively.

She hated this. She hated this sense of helplessness, which was compounded by her boredom. Television was pointless, as were books, even, as she had yet to learn braille. In fact, books were even more useless to her at the moment than television, because at least with t.v. she could follow some of what was going on by listening. There wasn't any point, though, because the only stuff on now was soap operas and the like. Bleh.

Defeated, she slid down the wall until the floor met her derriere, which reminded her of one of her weird dreams she'd been having lately. All such thoughts were banished, however, at the soft sound of the shoji leading into the house sliding open, accompanied by the shuffle of slippers, and the smells of perfume, lavender talcum powder, and fresh tea.

"Tea, Makoto dear?"

"Hai, Obasan. Arigato gozaimasu," Makoto replied as she heard the slight clatter of cups and pot on tray as the ensemble was set on the floor, followed by the soft thump of her grandmother seating herself.

After the soft back-and-forth of "One lump or two?" and "Three, please," followed by "What do you think of this new cookie recipe?" and "Yum!", grandmother and granddaughter settled into comfortable silence. This was broken by the arrival of Makoto's grandfather and an unknown--to Makoto--man. After preliminary introductions were made, Koga, younger of the two remaining masters of the Unseen Light , explained just who he was, what he could do, and his offer of tutelage to the newly-sightless Kino heiress.

Makoto thought long and hard, weighing her options. She could take up this man's offer and regain the ability to see and interact with the world, after a fashion, at the cost of time, pain, sweat and effort, though this Koga seemed to think she'd be able to pick it up unusually quick. She suspected that her use of magic as a senshi, combined with what little her grandfather had taught her about ki and chi, might be the reason for that, not that she'd mention that first part of her theories. The upswing to this would be that she could eventually go back to Senshi work, busting youma and saving the world. The down-side...well, that was her having to stay out of school past the summer break if she didn't get this fast enough, but she'd be kept away from Juuban Junior High indefinitely if she stuck to more conventional adaptation methods, and she would be forever kept from her destiny as a Senshi.

"I'm in."

Besides, her trusting the safety of her Princess solely to the other Inners and Chiba Mamoru? Over her cold and dead body. She'd lost Serenity once because she hadn't been there to fight off the unenlightened masses; she wasn't doing it again!

...Okay, where had that come from?

Author's notes: Whoo-hoo! It took nearly a year-long haiatus from this story, but I'm back in the fan fic saddle!

Kali Khat is the original name for Calcutta, in case you were wondering.

-- Rosy the Cat 2-5-06


End file.
